Producer, writer, director and actress Mindy Kaling — well known for playing the character Kelly Kapoor on hit sitcom The Office — has long been elusive about the paternity of her now 18-month-old daughter, Katherine.

But the star recently gave a candid reason for her secretiveness.

“My feeling is that until I speak to my daughter about that, I’m not going to talk to anyone else about it,” she told The New York Times Magazine.

Kaling, 39, also spoke on becoming a mother, saying she surprised herself with the maternal instinct she was at first unsure she had.

“I did not think I had a big maternal instinct. I’m very impatient, and having a baby requires an amount of patience that I was worried about. But they don’t tell you that the thing will look so much like you, and do things that are so sweet and adorable, that you’ll naturally not have the same impatience that you would have with a stranger or someone who works for you,” she said.

Separately, Kaling — who also starred in the hit comedy series The Mindy Project — recently spoke on being the “diversity hire” for The Office.

“NBC paid for my salary, it didn’t come out of the (show’s) budget,” she said earlier this month. “And I remember being acutely aware of that and embarrassed by it, frankly.”

“If one of the other writers who is white and male has a bad day or off day or isn’t as funny as they should be, you don’t think that’s a reflection of all white men,” continued Kaling, who was also a co-writer in The Office.

At the time, Kaling also spoke on becoming a parent.

“I wasn’t ready. I don’t think anyone is ever ready. I definitely knew I wanted kids, but the decision, it was not something that I had, like, planned,” she said of her daughter, adding: “I have been really surprised by how much I crave time with her. Just that there was a side of me that could really enjoy being around the baby.”

This story originally appeared on Fox News and is republished here with permission.